Call number
FIC BAR
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Genres
Series
Publication
Plume (1995), 288 pages
Description
London, 1918. Billy Prior is working for Intelligence in the Ministry of Munitions. But his private encounters with women and men - pacifists, objectors, homosexuals - conflict with his duties as a soldier, and it is not long before his sense of himself fragments and breaks down. Forced to consult the man who helped him before - army psychiatrist William Rivers - Prior must confront his inability to be the dutiful soldier his superiors wish him to be ...The Eye in the Door is a heart-rending study of the contradictions of war and of those forced to live through it.
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Media reviews
"The Eye in the Door" succeeds as both historical fiction and as sequel. Its research and speculation combine to produce a kind of educated imagination that is persuasive and illuminating . . . Occasionally the novel's pedagogic impulse, usually smoothly subterranean, surfaces. . . Ultimately,
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though, "The Eye in the Door" is an impressive work. . . Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member labfs39
[Regeneration], the first book in Barker's Regeneration Trilogy, was a tour de force, in which the treatment of WWI shell shocked soldiers is explored through the eyes of army psychologist, Dr. Rivers. Based on many actual people, events, and treatments, the book follows an episode in the life of
Billy Prior was a minor figure in Regeneration, but now he becomes a central character. Released from Craiglockhart Hospital due to his asthma, not a cure, Prior is struggling with his constant need for sex and fears of what would happen if he failed to keep his sadistic impulses in check. Despite his sessions with Dr. Rivers, Prior begins to dissociate between a soldier creating a relationship with a young woman and a sexual predator capable of the unthinkable. The result is a fugue state where hours, then days, are lost to Prior's conscious mind, and he fears what he might have done during the lost time. Especially once a childhood friend ends up in jail.
As Dr. Rivers struggles to help Prior and prevent his complete devolvement into a split personality, the doctor also wrestles with his own struggles with integration. Academically he thinks of the terms he and Dr. Head used during their nerve regeneration studies described in Regeneration: protopathic being the state of extreme pain that has an all or nothing quality and is difficult to locate precisely, and epicritic, or the ability to feel gradations and to precisely locate stimuli. The epicritic system provides the body with accurate information and the ability to control the more extreme reactions of the protopathic state.
Inevitably, as time went on, both words had acquired broader meanings so that 'epicritic' came to stand for everything rational, ordered, cerebral, objective, while 'protopathic' referred to the emotional, the sensual, the chaotic, the primitive. In this way the experiment both reflected Rivers's internal divisions and supplied him with a vocabulary in which to express them. He might almost have said with Henry Jekyll: It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was so radically both...
Eventually Dr. Rivers comes to the conclusion that Perhaps, contrary to what was usually supposed, duality was the stable state; the attempt at integration, dangerous.
As Dr. Rivers strives to help his patients and himself, the British homefront is in a social frenzy. Tiring of the war and eager to lash out, the country focuses on two targets: pacificists and homosexuals. The attack on pacificists leads to arrests and brutal means of forcing them to recant and support the war. The assault on homosexuals takes the form of the infamous "Black Book" with its list of 47,000 supposed homosexuals that were allegedly being blackmailed into helping the Germans, and the Pemberton Billing court case. The result of this social distrust was an Orwellian atmosphere where people feared that Big Brother was watching their private lives though "an eye in the door". The history of the attacks on these groups is both the background to the story and an enlargement upon it. The author is deft in bringing the large and the small together in a seamless manner.
Part historical commentary and part psychological and philosophical studies, The Eye in the Door leaves the reader with much to ponder. While it might not have the simple power of the author's first book in the trilogy, I was not disappointed with the second. I became caught up both in the characters and in the larger historical context. Although I dislike Billy Prior, his struggles highlight the more subtle internal conflicts faced by Dr. Rivers. And once again, I find that I have learned far more history from one of Pat Barker's historical novels than I thought likely. I am savoring the prospect of her last book in the trilogy, [The Ghost Road], which one the Booker Prize in 1995.
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poet Siegfried Sassoon and his treatment for pacifism by Rivers. In The Eye in the Door the story continues, but the focus shifts away from Sassoon, and lands squarely on Rivers and one of his patients, Billy Prior. Through Rivers' continuing crisis of conscience and Prior's deteriorating condition, this book explores the duality of personality and how it effects those who live in a hostile world, whether at home or at the front. Billy Prior was a minor figure in Regeneration, but now he becomes a central character. Released from Craiglockhart Hospital due to his asthma, not a cure, Prior is struggling with his constant need for sex and fears of what would happen if he failed to keep his sadistic impulses in check. Despite his sessions with Dr. Rivers, Prior begins to dissociate between a soldier creating a relationship with a young woman and a sexual predator capable of the unthinkable. The result is a fugue state where hours, then days, are lost to Prior's conscious mind, and he fears what he might have done during the lost time. Especially once a childhood friend ends up in jail.
As Dr. Rivers struggles to help Prior and prevent his complete devolvement into a split personality, the doctor also wrestles with his own struggles with integration. Academically he thinks of the terms he and Dr. Head used during their nerve regeneration studies described in Regeneration: protopathic being the state of extreme pain that has an all or nothing quality and is difficult to locate precisely, and epicritic, or the ability to feel gradations and to precisely locate stimuli. The epicritic system provides the body with accurate information and the ability to control the more extreme reactions of the protopathic state.
Inevitably, as time went on, both words had acquired broader meanings so that 'epicritic' came to stand for everything rational, ordered, cerebral, objective, while 'protopathic' referred to the emotional, the sensual, the chaotic, the primitive. In this way the experiment both reflected Rivers's internal divisions and supplied him with a vocabulary in which to express them. He might almost have said with Henry Jekyll: It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was so radically both...
Eventually Dr. Rivers comes to the conclusion that Perhaps, contrary to what was usually supposed, duality was the stable state; the attempt at integration, dangerous.
As Dr. Rivers strives to help his patients and himself, the British homefront is in a social frenzy. Tiring of the war and eager to lash out, the country focuses on two targets: pacificists and homosexuals. The attack on pacificists leads to arrests and brutal means of forcing them to recant and support the war. The assault on homosexuals takes the form of the infamous "Black Book" with its list of 47,000 supposed homosexuals that were allegedly being blackmailed into helping the Germans, and the Pemberton Billing court case. The result of this social distrust was an Orwellian atmosphere where people feared that Big Brother was watching their private lives though "an eye in the door". The history of the attacks on these groups is both the background to the story and an enlargement upon it. The author is deft in bringing the large and the small together in a seamless manner.
Part historical commentary and part psychological and philosophical studies, The Eye in the Door leaves the reader with much to ponder. While it might not have the simple power of the author's first book in the trilogy, I was not disappointed with the second. I became caught up both in the characters and in the larger historical context. Although I dislike Billy Prior, his struggles highlight the more subtle internal conflicts faced by Dr. Rivers. And once again, I find that I have learned far more history from one of Pat Barker's historical novels than I thought likely. I am savoring the prospect of her last book in the trilogy, [The Ghost Road], which one the Booker Prize in 1995.
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LibraryThing member CBJames
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker is the second part of her "Regeneration" trilogy. (You can read my review of the first part here.) The books follow several soldiers returned to England from fighting in the trenches of the first world war to the care of psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers. Ms. Barker mixes
The main characters in this volume are Dr. Rivers and Billy Prior. Billy Prior appeared on the road to recovery by the end of the first volume. He is not physically well enough to go back into the battlefield but he is able to work for the military on the home front. He is given a position with the Ministry of Munitions and assigned the job of dealing with pacifist groups. One reason why he is given this assignment is that so many pacifists are part of his circle of longtime friends. His superiors believe this will give him insight into finding and arresting them. There is no room for dissent in wartime England as far as those in charge are concerned. That opposition to World War I in England was so strong, may come as a surprise to many American readers.
Dr. Rivers has moved on from Craiglockhart Hospital where he worked in the first novel, to a research/treatment facility in London. He continues to work with his longtime patient poet Siegfried Sassoon who has returned to his care once again, unable to face the trauma of the battlefield after all. Siegfried and Billy both share their lives and secrets with Dr. Rivers as his patients and as his friends.
The overarching conflict the characters face in The Eye in the Door is the witch hunt against gay men and lesbians underway in England during the second half of the war. The war was not going well and people needed a scapegoat. An opportunistic politician has seized the moment to publish his claim that a list of 47,000 people was in his position, that this list came from a German source, and that the people on the list planned to weaken the English forces by leading them down the path of Sodom. His claim is taken very seriously; anyone with even a remote connection to anything suspicious is in danger of arrest. Even solders like Prior and Sassoon who are decorated heroes. (Sound at all familiar?) Dr. Rivers patient Charles Manning fears that attending Maud Allen's production of Salome will put him at risk. Sassoon's friend Robert Ross is under assult for his connections to the play and to Oscar Wilde. This echo of the Oscar Wilde trials adds an interesting layer of history to the novel. While millions of soldiers died in France, the English papers were obsessed with Maud Allen's production of Oscar Wilde's controversial play.
Ms. Barker's writint style is deceptively simple. She tells her story in a very straightforward manner and, for the most part, without great flourishes of drama. These books remind me of Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy. They take their time; revelling in the accumulation of detail rather than in dramatic twists. They work to create fully fleshed out characters that have their own lives inside and outside of the novels. If Ms. Barker's writing appears to lack poetry it is because her main concern is character, but don't let this fool you. Her writing is terrific.
Look at the opening paragraph I've quoted above. In these two sentences Ms. Barker has illuminated the conflict Prior, Sassoon and soldiers like him feel when mixing with civilians. The setting is the Serpetine bridge in Hyde Park. (I had to look that up.) This area of the park has been a cruising ground for men looking to meet other men for sex which describes the bisexual Billy Prior quite well. The tulips stand in rows, formal, like soldiers on parade. But they are flowers, something completely frivolous at a time when millions of young men were dying horrible deaths in trench warfare. The rows of tulips are tight-lipped, they won't talk just as the soldiers refuse to talk about the truth of their experience. Tight-lipped implies a refusal to say something, reveal a secret, in spite of wanting to do so. In the second sentence Billy Prior reacts to the flowers by gunning them down. The language Ms. Barker uses here is well chosen. Prior sets up an enfilade. (I had to look it up; it comes from the French and means gunfire directed along a row of troops.) Prior takes his arm away from his girlfriend and fires an imaginary machine-gun. Guns of the imagination figure strongly in the illnesses suffered by the men in Dr. River's care. Blasting the heads of "the whole bloody lot of them" appears fun and games in this scene, cliched perhaps, but once the reader knows the source of Prior's illness, of the suffering so many soldiers went through, it's not fun and games anymore and cliched because it's such a common occurance.
Though set in England during World War I, the "Regeneration" books have much to say to contemporary America. How will we reintegrate returning soldiers? How will we reconcile them with those who opposed the war? How will the soldiers adapt to their countrymen who did not suffer anything really while they were fighting? It must be quite a shock to come back from Iraq or Afghanistan and find Americans going about their business as though nothing was wrong at all with a brand new iPod providing the soundtrack.
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker looks these questions full in the face. I'm giving it five out of five stars. These books have been getting more attention since the final volume, The Ghost Road, was on the short list for the Best of the Booker Prize.
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historical figures with imagined characters to create a fascinating cross-section of people facing the difficulties of soldiers trying to cope with the mental breakdowns brought on them by war. The main characters in this volume are Dr. Rivers and Billy Prior. Billy Prior appeared on the road to recovery by the end of the first volume. He is not physically well enough to go back into the battlefield but he is able to work for the military on the home front. He is given a position with the Ministry of Munitions and assigned the job of dealing with pacifist groups. One reason why he is given this assignment is that so many pacifists are part of his circle of longtime friends. His superiors believe this will give him insight into finding and arresting them. There is no room for dissent in wartime England as far as those in charge are concerned. That opposition to World War I in England was so strong, may come as a surprise to many American readers.
Dr. Rivers has moved on from Craiglockhart Hospital where he worked in the first novel, to a research/treatment facility in London. He continues to work with his longtime patient poet Siegfried Sassoon who has returned to his care once again, unable to face the trauma of the battlefield after all. Siegfried and Billy both share their lives and secrets with Dr. Rivers as his patients and as his friends.
The overarching conflict the characters face in The Eye in the Door is the witch hunt against gay men and lesbians underway in England during the second half of the war. The war was not going well and people needed a scapegoat. An opportunistic politician has seized the moment to publish his claim that a list of 47,000 people was in his position, that this list came from a German source, and that the people on the list planned to weaken the English forces by leading them down the path of Sodom. His claim is taken very seriously; anyone with even a remote connection to anything suspicious is in danger of arrest. Even solders like Prior and Sassoon who are decorated heroes. (Sound at all familiar?) Dr. Rivers patient Charles Manning fears that attending Maud Allen's production of Salome will put him at risk. Sassoon's friend Robert Ross is under assult for his connections to the play and to Oscar Wilde. This echo of the Oscar Wilde trials adds an interesting layer of history to the novel. While millions of soldiers died in France, the English papers were obsessed with Maud Allen's production of Oscar Wilde's controversial play.
Ms. Barker's writint style is deceptively simple. She tells her story in a very straightforward manner and, for the most part, without great flourishes of drama. These books remind me of Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy. They take their time; revelling in the accumulation of detail rather than in dramatic twists. They work to create fully fleshed out characters that have their own lives inside and outside of the novels. If Ms. Barker's writing appears to lack poetry it is because her main concern is character, but don't let this fool you. Her writing is terrific.
Look at the opening paragraph I've quoted above. In these two sentences Ms. Barker has illuminated the conflict Prior, Sassoon and soldiers like him feel when mixing with civilians. The setting is the Serpetine bridge in Hyde Park. (I had to look that up.) This area of the park has been a cruising ground for men looking to meet other men for sex which describes the bisexual Billy Prior quite well. The tulips stand in rows, formal, like soldiers on parade. But they are flowers, something completely frivolous at a time when millions of young men were dying horrible deaths in trench warfare. The rows of tulips are tight-lipped, they won't talk just as the soldiers refuse to talk about the truth of their experience. Tight-lipped implies a refusal to say something, reveal a secret, in spite of wanting to do so. In the second sentence Billy Prior reacts to the flowers by gunning them down. The language Ms. Barker uses here is well chosen. Prior sets up an enfilade. (I had to look it up; it comes from the French and means gunfire directed along a row of troops.) Prior takes his arm away from his girlfriend and fires an imaginary machine-gun. Guns of the imagination figure strongly in the illnesses suffered by the men in Dr. River's care. Blasting the heads of "the whole bloody lot of them" appears fun and games in this scene, cliched perhaps, but once the reader knows the source of Prior's illness, of the suffering so many soldiers went through, it's not fun and games anymore and cliched because it's such a common occurance.
Though set in England during World War I, the "Regeneration" books have much to say to contemporary America. How will we reintegrate returning soldiers? How will we reconcile them with those who opposed the war? How will the soldiers adapt to their countrymen who did not suffer anything really while they were fighting? It must be quite a shock to come back from Iraq or Afghanistan and find Americans going about their business as though nothing was wrong at all with a brand new iPod providing the soundtrack.
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker looks these questions full in the face. I'm giving it five out of five stars. These books have been getting more attention since the final volume, The Ghost Road, was on the short list for the Best of the Booker Prize.
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LibraryThing member mminor1985
This second book in the Regeneration trilogy focuses on Billy Prior as England seems to be losing World War I against the Germans. The homosexuals and the pacifists are the scapegoats for the reason that the English are losing the War to end all wars. Where the homosexuals need to hide their sexual
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identity or else they will need to be sent off to a psycharatic hospital for treatment of their homosexuality. Show Less
LibraryThing member wendyrey
Set during the first world war and a sequel to 'Regeneration'. It took a while to get into probably because I haven't read its predecessor. Issues of homosexuality, homophobia and class. The stories of several people are narrated with no one main protagonist. I was a bit put of by a homosexual sex
Good read
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scene at the beginning but that was all the sex ( good for me disappointing for others). I am also a bit uncomfortable with the mingling of historical figures, such as Sigfried Sassoon with the purely fictional lead characters. (Using fictional characters to tell the story of the real is one thing , using real people to relate the story of fictional is another)Good read
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LibraryThing member writestuff
The second novel in Pat Barker’s WWI trilogy - The Eye in the Door - is all about duality. Set in the spring of 1918 with Britain fearing defeat at the hands of Germany, the book centers around the British government’s effort to find scapegoats to blame in the guise of pacifists and
In this second novel, Barker brings back Billy Prior who is working for the Ministry of Munitions (having been unable to return to the fighting in France due to uncontrolled asthma). Billy’s role of government “spy” to uncover pacifists and homosexuals conflicts with his own confused identity - he has a girlfriend, but engages in homosexual relationships. In addition to Billy, Siegfried Sassoon (a poet and war hero) and Dr. Rivers (noted psychiatrist) also make a return to the pages of this sequel.
Thematically, Barker focuses on the paranoia rampant in British society during this time in history. The notion of duality is played out for each character - with Billy having unexplained blackouts where his alter ego carries on without his input; as well as the disassociation of Sassoon’s personality (pacifist vs. military officer).
'Siegfried had always coped with the war by being two people: the anti-war poet and pacifist; the bloodthirsty, efficient company commander.' - from The Eye in the Door, page 233 -
Even Dr. Rivers suffers from a conflict with the two sides of his personality and begins to question whether the integration of self is advisable.
'Perhaps, contrary to what was usually supposed, duality was the stable state; the attempt at integration, dangerous.' - from The Eye in the Door, page 235 -
The Eye in the Door is a complex, psychological novel about the impact of war on the minds of soldiers. But it also goes deeper to explore the idea of the dual nature of an individual. This is a dark novel which can be dry and difficult to read at times. Barker’s writing is good, her characters are complicated…and yet I felt myself drifting at times.
For those readers who enjoy historical fiction which is also deeply philosophical, this is a novel worth reading. I should also add a cautionary note that there is some graphic sex described in the novel which may be offensive to some readers.
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homosexuals. Barker uses the historic trial of Maud Allan vs. Pemberton Billing as the central event around which the plot weaves. The trial was a sham of sorts - with the lead Justice losing control over the court and the star defense witness for Billing being Harold Spencer - a lunatic who was obsessed with ‘women who had hypertrophied and diseased clitorises, and therefore could be satisfied only by bull elephants.‘In this second novel, Barker brings back Billy Prior who is working for the Ministry of Munitions (having been unable to return to the fighting in France due to uncontrolled asthma). Billy’s role of government “spy” to uncover pacifists and homosexuals conflicts with his own confused identity - he has a girlfriend, but engages in homosexual relationships. In addition to Billy, Siegfried Sassoon (a poet and war hero) and Dr. Rivers (noted psychiatrist) also make a return to the pages of this sequel.
Thematically, Barker focuses on the paranoia rampant in British society during this time in history. The notion of duality is played out for each character - with Billy having unexplained blackouts where his alter ego carries on without his input; as well as the disassociation of Sassoon’s personality (pacifist vs. military officer).
'Siegfried had always coped with the war by being two people: the anti-war poet and pacifist; the bloodthirsty, efficient company commander.' - from The Eye in the Door, page 233 -
Even Dr. Rivers suffers from a conflict with the two sides of his personality and begins to question whether the integration of self is advisable.
'Perhaps, contrary to what was usually supposed, duality was the stable state; the attempt at integration, dangerous.' - from The Eye in the Door, page 235 -
The Eye in the Door is a complex, psychological novel about the impact of war on the minds of soldiers. But it also goes deeper to explore the idea of the dual nature of an individual. This is a dark novel which can be dry and difficult to read at times. Barker’s writing is good, her characters are complicated…and yet I felt myself drifting at times.
For those readers who enjoy historical fiction which is also deeply philosophical, this is a novel worth reading. I should also add a cautionary note that there is some graphic sex described in the novel which may be offensive to some readers.
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LibraryThing member Cariola
[The Eye in the Door] by [[Pat Barker]].
This is the second novel in Barker's 'Regeneration' trilogy. As such, it reads a bit like a transitional novel and doesn't quite stand on its own as well as the first, [Regeneration]. I'm hoping that the final installment, [The Ghost Road], will raise the bar
In [The Eye in the Door], psychiatrist Dr. Rivers and several of his patients, including Billy Pryor and Siegfried Sassoon, return, and we find out what each has been doing since leaving Craiglockhart, the Scottish war hospital for soldiers suffering mental trauma. Barker explores a myriad of questions concerning loyalty to one's country, family, and friends. Because the setting has moved to London, she is able to expand her scope to include British society outside the confines of the hospital. (One of the themes is the persecution of homosexuals; one character notes how strange it is that the war encourages love between men as a motivation to fight, yet at the same time. those in charge want to set parameters on the kind of love that is acceptable.) Through Pryor, who has joined military intelligence, we see the corruption of the justice system and the conditions of prisons, and Rivers's visits to his colleague (aptly named Dr. Head) provide insight into what now seem like primitive forms of treatment for psychological problems. Overriding all is the power of the war machine and its efforts to keep providing bodies to fill the trenches. And, of course, the devastating effect of the war on individual lives and the national psyche.
This is the second novel in Barker's 'Regeneration' trilogy. As such, it reads a bit like a transitional novel and doesn't quite stand on its own as well as the first, [Regeneration]. I'm hoping that the final installment, [The Ghost Road], will raise the bar
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again.In [The Eye in the Door], psychiatrist Dr. Rivers and several of his patients, including Billy Pryor and Siegfried Sassoon, return, and we find out what each has been doing since leaving Craiglockhart, the Scottish war hospital for soldiers suffering mental trauma. Barker explores a myriad of questions concerning loyalty to one's country, family, and friends. Because the setting has moved to London, she is able to expand her scope to include British society outside the confines of the hospital. (One of the themes is the persecution of homosexuals; one character notes how strange it is that the war encourages love between men as a motivation to fight, yet at the same time. those in charge want to set parameters on the kind of love that is acceptable.) Through Pryor, who has joined military intelligence, we see the corruption of the justice system and the conditions of prisons, and Rivers's visits to his colleague (aptly named Dr. Head) provide insight into what now seem like primitive forms of treatment for psychological problems. Overriding all is the power of the war machine and its efforts to keep providing bodies to fill the trenches. And, of course, the devastating effect of the war on individual lives and the national psyche.
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LibraryThing member bxdoc
very much a book about duality.each character struggles with an internal conflict--most dramatically Prior, who has blackouts in which a "second" personality emerges and behaves in away he can't remember or explain. Does he betray his childhood friend Mac? It appears that he does. His sexuality,
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though he seems less conflicted about it, isn't completely clear. He seems a sexual omnivore. any partner will do. Unlike others who are closeted and more guilt-ridden. Baker does a terrific job in bringing her well-rounded characters to life while weaving in all the social class and psychological aspects of the war. Looking foward to the last book in the trilogy. Show Less
LibraryThing member eleanor_eader
The sequel (and second in the trilogy) to Barker’s amazing ‘Regeneration’. I only discovered these books recently, and was blown away by the standard of writing and treatment of the issues in Regeneration… The Eye in the Door follows through on this; I get the impression that Eye is based
There are so many issues of war woven through Barker’s stories that coming out of each book is rather like emerging from the trenches; or at least from River’s consultation room, where one’s psyche is stripped to the ground. The characters are not real simply because the existed, but because Barker effortlessly breathes complicated, harrowing life into them, leaving the impressively dedicated Rivers to deconstruct neuroses so real and life-sized that they daunt the reader even as we begin to understand the impact of the first world war upon the men who fought it.
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slightly less on biographical fact, though is none-the-less important for that. The theme of homosexuality is addressed more directly in this book, concentrating on River’s patients in England who are dealing with both natural homosexuality and war-induced blurring of sexuality in a time when the citizenry’s reaction to the bonding of soldiers was to crack down ferociously on ‘inappropriate and degrading’ behaviour at home. Threaded through this theme, we follow Prior, whose dual personality threatens to implode under the strain of investigating his childhood friends for harbouring deserters, ‘conchies’ and ‘cowards’. There are so many issues of war woven through Barker’s stories that coming out of each book is rather like emerging from the trenches; or at least from River’s consultation room, where one’s psyche is stripped to the ground. The characters are not real simply because the existed, but because Barker effortlessly breathes complicated, harrowing life into them, leaving the impressively dedicated Rivers to deconstruct neuroses so real and life-sized that they daunt the reader even as we begin to understand the impact of the first world war upon the men who fought it.
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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
The second book in a series can so often be the best one. The first in a trilogy establishes the characters and the general idea of the plot; the third ties up all the loose ends; but more often than not it's the middle book that carries the most drama, the most uncertainty, and the most shocks.
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This is certainly true here. 'The Eye in the Door' is, for me, the most interesting of the 'Regeneration' trilogy. I hadn't much enjoyed the first volume and so my expectations were sufficiently low for this book to delight me. It is about the Great War, true, but so much more as well, like freedom of expression and love, and homosexuality in a time when it was still illegal. Show Less
LibraryThing member lauralkeet
This second novel in the Regeneration Trilogy continues to expose the horrors of war, through the lives of several men recovering from psychological trauma. Billy Prior, recently released from Craiglockhart hospital, remains under the care of psychiatrist Dr. William Rivers. Prior works in a
But here's the thing: in the first fourteen pages, the reader is treated to one episode of heterosexual foreplay, followed almost immediately by a more graphic gay sex scene. OK, the character is bisexual, I get it. Ms. Barker, why didn't you just say so? Did you have to hit me over the head with it? Barker is clearly sympathetic towards her gay and bisexual characters, and accurately portrays the "double life" led by most gay men at that time. The secrecy and repression were quite sad, really. I just felt the erotic scenes were a bit gratuitous.
Having said that, I enjoyed reading more about Dr. Rivers and learning of his treatment methods. This book is a fairly quick read and I am looking forward to completing the trilogy.
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London-based intelligence unit, investigating an alleged assassination plot. Barker elegantly weaves the threads of Prior's mental state, his personal relationships, and the assassination plot into a fairly interesting story. As with Regeneration, this book shows a side of the war seldom seen in "mainstream" literature and films, which tend to glamorize combat. And in this installment, Barker also shows how the war has affected British culture, whipping up patriotism and stifling dissent.But here's the thing: in the first fourteen pages, the reader is treated to one episode of heterosexual foreplay, followed almost immediately by a more graphic gay sex scene. OK, the character is bisexual, I get it. Ms. Barker, why didn't you just say so? Did you have to hit me over the head with it? Barker is clearly sympathetic towards her gay and bisexual characters, and accurately portrays the "double life" led by most gay men at that time. The secrecy and repression were quite sad, really. I just felt the erotic scenes were a bit gratuitous.
Having said that, I enjoyed reading more about Dr. Rivers and learning of his treatment methods. This book is a fairly quick read and I am looking forward to completing the trilogy.
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LibraryThing member d.homsher
World War I veteran, Prior, is tormented by his memories and the sense that he, and many of his broken comrades, are now split in half, doomed to live double lives.The second book in Barker's WWI trilogy, grounded in her study of the science of psychology at the time. The main character, Prior, is
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an intelligence agent, torn by the fact that he must investigate (and perhaps has betrayed) old friends who were implicated in anti-war activities. England is full of rumors and fears, especially concerning homosexuals and their effect on the nation. Oscar Wilde gets a nod. Prior himself has had male lovers, a fact that intensifies his sense that he's bursting, boiling with secrets, some of them as yet unknown to him, undiscovered by him. Show Less
LibraryThing member Nickelini
In this second installment of the Regeneration trilogy, Rivers, Prior and Sassoon return to fight the contemporary climate that says the war is going poorly due to pacifism, homosexuality and general cowardice. I enjoyed this one at least as much as the first--if not more. A rather detailed
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homosexual act early in the novel may unsettle some readers, but it does not set the tone for the whole book. Definitely recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member isabelx
Because his sleep was light, he knew he was dreaming, and he knew also that he had to wake up before something worse happened. He turned and saw the eye watching him, an eye not painted but very much alive. The white glittered in the moonlight. The same noise of emptiness he'd heard in France had
The stories of 'temporary gentleman' Billy Prior, Siegfried Sassoon and the army psychologist Rivers continue in the second part of the Regeneration trilogy, along with that of a new character, the wounded homosexual officer Charles Manning. Themes include class struggle, anti-war activists disrupting munitions production, an army doctor's attempts to balance the conflicting needs of the army and his patients, and anti-homosexual propaganda.
I'd never heard of the Black Book and the 47,000 names, the Pemberton Billings case or the attempt to kill Lloyd George, so it has increased my knowledge of the WWI period, but overall I think I preferred the first book.
Then Manning said, 'You sound almost as if you want to go back.'
'Yes, I suppose I do, in a way. It's odd, isn't it? In spite of everything - I mean in spite of Not Believing in the War and Not Having Faith in Our Generals and all that, it seems the only clean place to be.'
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followed him into the cell. He stared at the eye, and then, by a supreme effort of will, forced himself to sit up.The stories of 'temporary gentleman' Billy Prior, Siegfried Sassoon and the army psychologist Rivers continue in the second part of the Regeneration trilogy, along with that of a new character, the wounded homosexual officer Charles Manning. Themes include class struggle, anti-war activists disrupting munitions production, an army doctor's attempts to balance the conflicting needs of the army and his patients, and anti-homosexual propaganda.
I'd never heard of the Black Book and the 47,000 names, the Pemberton Billings case or the attempt to kill Lloyd George, so it has increased my knowledge of the WWI period, but overall I think I preferred the first book.
Then Manning said, 'You sound almost as if you want to go back.'
'Yes, I suppose I do, in a way. It's odd, isn't it? In spite of everything - I mean in spite of Not Believing in the War and Not Having Faith in Our Generals and all that, it seems the only clean place to be.'
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LibraryThing member Smiler69
This is the 2nd book in Pat Barker's Regenerations Trilogy. It takes place in London in 1918 and the main protagonist in this novel is Billy Prior, a young officer who was suffering from shell shock in the first book, Regeneration, as he tries to put the pieces of his life together working for the
There were plenty of interesting themes in this novel, though I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I did the first one. I look forward to reading the last book in the trilogy to see how Barker has tied together all the loose ends.
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Ministry of Munitions. That Billy is leading a double life is amply clear from the first chapter of the book. After having been turned down for sex by his date, a girl he's been with once before, he then proceeds to follow a man to his home for a romp in the sack. Billy has no qualms about his bisexuality, but what he does have a problem with is the increasing frequency with which he experiences loss of time and comes to after longer and longer periods which he can't account for and although Dr. Rivers tries to convince him that he doesn't necessarily turn into a Mr. Hyde, Billy himself fears the worst.There were plenty of interesting themes in this novel, though I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I did the first one. I look forward to reading the last book in the trilogy to see how Barker has tied together all the loose ends.
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LibraryThing member vibrantminds
Billy Prior is the main focus of this Part 2 of 3 books. The first being Regeneration and the last being The Ghost Road. This book focuses on the social abnormalities of society and the effect the role play's on the mind's of soldiers and civilians. Billy Prior is a bisexual and an officer who is
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loyal to his men but his sexual desires have had an impact on his lifestyle. He is back from the war (WWI) and has been a patient in a psychiatric hospital under the care of Dr. Rivers. He has been released from the hospital but still visits with Dr. Rivers due to episodic phases of his life where he has memory lapses resulting in a split personality. Not as good as the first book but still holds its own. Show Less
LibraryThing member alionora
I loved Regeneration, so I had high hopes for this sequel. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I blame some of it on my in this case very erratic reading, but mostly I blame the book.
Actually, my biggest issue isn't with the book itself, it's just that I miss the characters from Regeneration. I miss
From a historic point of view, I definitely enjoyed it, especially regarding Pemberton Billing libel trial. But other than that, I wouldn't call it remarkable.
I hope that The Eye in the Door just suffers from the middle book syndrome, and that The Ghost Road will be better.
Actually, my biggest issue isn't with the book itself, it's just that I miss the characters from Regeneration. I miss
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Rivers, who is not featured very much in this book, and Sassoon, who isn't in it at all. I didn't like Prior much in Regeneration, and while he certainly grows on me as this book progress, he just doesn't measure up.From a historic point of view, I definitely enjoyed it, especially regarding Pemberton Billing libel trial. But other than that, I wouldn't call it remarkable.
I hope that The Eye in the Door just suffers from the middle book syndrome, and that The Ghost Road will be better.
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LibraryThing member maccy_P
The issue I have with this book, along with the first in the trilogy, is that there appears to be no 'main character'; it jumps between Billy Prior who opens it as the main character, to following Head, Sassoon and any other character that Barker wants to delve deeper into.
It also has too may story
There are patterns that link every thing together but it is less of a logical structure more a spiders-web of characters and topics. I really wouldn't know who to recommend the novel to
It also has too may story
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lines; is it a book about homosexuality in the early 20th century, is it about the effects of WW1, is it a love story, a study in psychology? What is it? There are patterns that link every thing together but it is less of a logical structure more a spiders-web of characters and topics. I really wouldn't know who to recommend the novel to
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LibraryThing member auntieknickers
In this second volume of Barker's World War I trilogy, the themes include homosexuality, imprisonment, resistance to the war effort, and the splitting of personality. The war seems to have made people in England hyper-sensitive to the perceived dangers of homosexuals, and a new character, Charles
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Manning, an officer who's been sent back to England with both physical and mental wounds, is receiving anonymous and somewhat threatening letters. Billy Prior's work in an intelligence unit attached to the Ministry of Munitions brings him in touch with people he knew in childhood who are now working against the war; his military duty conflicts with his feelings for old friends. The historical nature of this trilogy is a bit different from most historical novels, because so many of the events, while true, are not well-known, so the reader doesn't know what's coming. I should think this book would appeal to psychologists and those in related professions perhaps even more than to the general public. Show Less
LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
In this second book of the Regeneration series, Pat Barker focuses on two things. First of all is the Mccarthy-like witch hunt that occurred in Great Britain during WWI directed at homosexuals and pacifists. Secondly is the attempt at personality integration that is necessary for mental health
Highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand response to war, violence and poverty.
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after men who are traumatized by the violence of war attempt to deny the darker side of themselves. Some of the real life characters from Regeneration return: William Rivers, the social anthropologist - neurologist who is both therapist and father figure to the damaged men and Siegfried Sassoon, the anti-war poet. Also returning, and the main character of the book is Barker's perhaps somewhat autobiographical fictional character Billy Prior. The Freudian bent of analysis predominates. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand response to war, violence and poverty.
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LibraryThing member EmreSevinc
"The past is a palimpsest. Early memories are always obscured by accumulations of later knowledge."
Almost every page of this book is very heavy. Loaded with the memories of a war I haven't witnessed, mixing up with my days spent in the army many years ago; it always kept me uncomfortable because
I will remember this book not only from the perspective of the personal stories told, but also from the perspective of neuroscience and psychiatry, and also both from the perspective of the patient, as well as the doctor. Its literary merit lies not only in the strong narrative, intelligent descriptions of details, and piercing dialogues, but also in the way it makes the reader think about the question of 'self', and fragility of it.
I truly wish the horrible events that inspired this novel never happened. But they happened, and therefore I can only be happy that an author as good as Pat Barker captured the spirit of that time, and unrelentingly shared it with us.
Almost every page of this book is very heavy. Loaded with the memories of a war I haven't witnessed, mixing up with my days spent in the army many years ago; it always kept me uncomfortable because
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it, almost without an obvious effort, forced me to consider some dilemmas I don't want to face, ever. Some parts of it reminded me another great novel about the state of humanity in war: Catch-22. But of course, the dark humor is always eclipsed by the tragedy about which we can't speak much. Not for lack of experience, importance, emotions, or thoughts for that matter, but maybe what is lacking is hope.I will remember this book not only from the perspective of the personal stories told, but also from the perspective of neuroscience and psychiatry, and also both from the perspective of the patient, as well as the doctor. Its literary merit lies not only in the strong narrative, intelligent descriptions of details, and piercing dialogues, but also in the way it makes the reader think about the question of 'self', and fragility of it.
I truly wish the horrible events that inspired this novel never happened. But they happened, and therefore I can only be happy that an author as good as Pat Barker captured the spirit of that time, and unrelentingly shared it with us.
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LibraryThing member John
The second of Barker's trilogy. It could be enjoyed without having read Regeneration even though its principal character grew out of the same book. Barker expands her themes. She deals as in the first book with the horror of war and the conflict of those opposed to it in a moral/political sense,
In spite of everything--I mean in spite of Not Believing in the War and Not Having Faith in Our Generals and all that, it still seems the only clean place to be.
But Barker shows that even this is an illusion. It seems real against the backdrop of domestic society, but every situation carries or develops its own society or its own framework, and within that one still finds great differences in people, attitudes and actions. Perhaps the degree of cleanliness depends only or principally on the degree of comparison.
The feeling about the need to return is reminiscent of the "survivors syndrome" out of the concentration camps of WWII i.e. a sense of guilt at having survived when so many millions died. I suppose the compulsion in WWI could even have been compounded by the fact that one had more of a choice: choosing not to go is different from simply surviving an uncontrollable catastrophe.
As in the first book, there is also the theme of intolerance, particularly from those who castigated "healthy" young men for not being at the front, regardless of the fact that they had no idea of what the horrors of trench warfare really meant. She expands the theme in this book to include the intolerance and hostility directed at those who actively worked against the war (strikers and those who helped deserters or others avoiding conscription) and gays, often within the paranoia of spy-scares. The period of WWI did represent a basic shift in societal attitudes and structure and any change on this scale would engender reaction, conservatism, concern, and intolerance. We like to think that we have come some distance in our willingness/ability to understand, but I think that part of Barker's message is that the veneer is rather thin.
Good dialogue, good characters who are well-drawn and believable, and a sensitive, but not overdone examination of moral/intellectual dilemmas, and the conflict with internal demons.
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but who fought and fought well and returned to the front out of a sense of duty and the need not to let others take the risks and/or die while they themselves might sit safely at home, even when that safety could be "justified" in that they could not be described as shirkers. Perhaps best summed up by the principal character towards the end of the book:In spite of everything--I mean in spite of Not Believing in the War and Not Having Faith in Our Generals and all that, it still seems the only clean place to be.
But Barker shows that even this is an illusion. It seems real against the backdrop of domestic society, but every situation carries or develops its own society or its own framework, and within that one still finds great differences in people, attitudes and actions. Perhaps the degree of cleanliness depends only or principally on the degree of comparison.
The feeling about the need to return is reminiscent of the "survivors syndrome" out of the concentration camps of WWII i.e. a sense of guilt at having survived when so many millions died. I suppose the compulsion in WWI could even have been compounded by the fact that one had more of a choice: choosing not to go is different from simply surviving an uncontrollable catastrophe.
As in the first book, there is also the theme of intolerance, particularly from those who castigated "healthy" young men for not being at the front, regardless of the fact that they had no idea of what the horrors of trench warfare really meant. She expands the theme in this book to include the intolerance and hostility directed at those who actively worked against the war (strikers and those who helped deserters or others avoiding conscription) and gays, often within the paranoia of spy-scares. The period of WWI did represent a basic shift in societal attitudes and structure and any change on this scale would engender reaction, conservatism, concern, and intolerance. We like to think that we have come some distance in our willingness/ability to understand, but I think that part of Barker's message is that the veneer is rather thin.
Good dialogue, good characters who are well-drawn and believable, and a sensitive, but not overdone examination of moral/intellectual dilemmas, and the conflict with internal demons.
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LibraryThing member Lukerik
This shares many of the same themes as Regeneration but the storytelling is much smoother and I think the whole thing just works better. On reflection though it's Regeneration's jerkiness that makes it memorable.
LibraryThing member LovingLit
You cant help but compare books that are part of a series, this being the second it is impossible not to compare it to the first. Billy Prior is now released from hospital, still in the military and still fighting demons from his experience of front line WWI. He is also fighting inner demons that
The focus of this novel feels more scattered than the first. There are more characters that are highlighted, and it is difficult at first to see who we are meant to be following, and why. But soon, the flow is found and the story becomes exciting and so nicely revealed. The highlight for me in this book, as with the last, are the sections where Prior is talking to his psychiatrist, Rivers. In these sections the dialogue is so clever and sharp, it lets you right in on both the minds taking part in the conversations in which power play is important. Prior is determined not to feel the lesser man by being in the subordinate role of 'patient', he is after all an officer. He is in turn hostile, and matey with Rivers, who teases information out of him, getting him to come to conclusions about himself gently and impressively. It is wonderful to read, I give it 4 stars.
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haunt him from childhood, and fighting accepting a condition that he has that he becomes increasingly aware of throughout the novel.The focus of this novel feels more scattered than the first. There are more characters that are highlighted, and it is difficult at first to see who we are meant to be following, and why. But soon, the flow is found and the story becomes exciting and so nicely revealed. The highlight for me in this book, as with the last, are the sections where Prior is talking to his psychiatrist, Rivers. In these sections the dialogue is so clever and sharp, it lets you right in on both the minds taking part in the conversations in which power play is important. Prior is determined not to feel the lesser man by being in the subordinate role of 'patient', he is after all an officer. He is in turn hostile, and matey with Rivers, who teases information out of him, getting him to come to conclusions about himself gently and impressively. It is wonderful to read, I give it 4 stars.
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LibraryThing member cameling
Second in the trilogy, the story of Billy Prior takes centerstage in this book, with a short appearance by Siegfried Sassoon. The story continues with Billy Prior trying to help a past acquaintance, Beattie Roper, convicted of conspiracy to poison Lloyd George. He suspects someone of having framed
When visiting Beattie in prison, he notices a painted eye in the door. This eye is painted on all cell doors in prisons and leads to many a jailed pacifist or homosexual, targets of the British government and public's wrath, feeling that they're watched at all times.
His nightmares continue and he starts to suffer from an increasing number of fugue states where he has no recollection of what he may have said or done during these episodes. His weekly sessions with Dr Rivers attempt to understand the conditions that may be bringing on these episodes. The sessions are at times soothing,at times full of despair and frustration, and at times sinister, but throughout, these sessions provided men like Prior a safe haven in which they could try to come to honest terms with that which they would prefer to forget.
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her and through his position at the Ministry of Munitions, he slowly puts together a report that he hopes will shed light on the matter. When visiting Beattie in prison, he notices a painted eye in the door. This eye is painted on all cell doors in prisons and leads to many a jailed pacifist or homosexual, targets of the British government and public's wrath, feeling that they're watched at all times.
His nightmares continue and he starts to suffer from an increasing number of fugue states where he has no recollection of what he may have said or done during these episodes. His weekly sessions with Dr Rivers attempt to understand the conditions that may be bringing on these episodes. The sessions are at times soothing,at times full of despair and frustration, and at times sinister, but throughout, these sessions provided men like Prior a safe haven in which they could try to come to honest terms with that which they would prefer to forget.
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LibraryThing member maggie1944
In this second book of the trilogy, Barker continues to explore the effects of world war's battles, trenches, and inhumane conditions on the soldiers who came back to England to rest and recover from "battle fatigue". The books do not have a plot to drive from one chapter to another, just more and
I am liking the books because I have a life-long fascination with psychology and why people do what they do; the fact that these men were treated by a psychiatrist steeped in Freudian methodology makes some of the explanations interesting from a historical point of view. I appreciate the fact that Barker does not spare her psychiatrist from analysis also. He has his neurosis and it is occasionally analyzed and his resistance is noted. Barker has succeeded in making her characters, even the hard to love ones, attractive to the reader, in my case. I am rooting for them all to somehow survive this cataclysm, if not whole, at least still able to function and find some joy in living. It was a hard time to continue to see value in living, and this despair certainly makes recovery from "battle fatigue" a daunting journey.
I am interested to see what book 3 has to add.
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more about several characters. Issues of homosexuality and pacifism are identified as major barriers to acceptance of some of these soldiers. Evidently, England did have a wave of anti-homosexual hysteria during the war, and these "nancy" men were blamed, in part, for the poor progress of the war. England did, after all, expect to just march over there and sent the enemy running in short order, and as we know, that did not happen. Scapegoating is not a surprising reaction to this frustration.I am liking the books because I have a life-long fascination with psychology and why people do what they do; the fact that these men were treated by a psychiatrist steeped in Freudian methodology makes some of the explanations interesting from a historical point of view. I appreciate the fact that Barker does not spare her psychiatrist from analysis also. He has his neurosis and it is occasionally analyzed and his resistance is noted. Barker has succeeded in making her characters, even the hard to love ones, attractive to the reader, in my case. I am rooting for them all to somehow survive this cataclysm, if not whole, at least still able to function and find some joy in living. It was a hard time to continue to see value in living, and this despair certainly makes recovery from "battle fatigue" a daunting journey.
I am interested to see what book 3 has to add.
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Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 1996)
Guardian Fiction Prize (Winner — 1993)
Pages
288
ISBN
0452272726 / 9780452272729